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Updated: Jun 17, 2026

En Face Endocardial Cushion Preparation for Planar Morphogenesis Analysis in Mouse Embryos
Published on: July 27, 2022
Planar cell polarity signaling: the developing cell's compass
Eszter K Vladar1, Dragana Antic, Jeffrey D Axelrod
1Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Abstract:
Cells of many tissues acquire cellular asymmetry to execute their physiologic functions. The planar cell polarity system, first characterized in Drosophila, is important for many of these events. Studies in Drosophila suggest that an upstream system breaks cellular symmetry by converting tissue gradients to subcellular asymmetry, whereas a downstream system amplifies subcellular asymmetry and communicates polarity between cells. In this review, we discuss apparent similarities and differences in the mechanism that controls PCP as it has been adapted to a broad variety of morphological cellular asymmetries in various organisms.
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